Quick Thinking
by whoeverIamloves
Summary: Oneshot. Their mission had been to infiltrate a rich man's home under the cover of night, steal a certain document, and get out without anyone knowing of their presence. They were dangerously close to failing the mission. Just a little moment that popped into my head today between Kakashi and Rin, after the events of Gaiden. They're cornered and Rin thinks fast. (Not a kiss.)


What counts as a drabble and what counts as a one-shot? Maybe this is a one-shot drabble? IDK. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. :)

The usual disclaimers.

* * *

Kakashi gasped. He couldn't breathe.

Rin's hand glowing bright green in the center of his chest matched her other hand on her stomach, and he could see on her face that she was having almost as much trouble as he was, and the fact that she was supporting herself with the hand against him confirmed that she hadn't been ready for the constricting of chakra either.

The hunter chasing them was just on the other side of a very thin wall. Their mission had been to infiltrate a rich man's home under the cover of night, steal a certain document, and get out without anyone knowing of their presence. They were dangerously close to failing the mission, because of course the rich man just happened to have an ex hunter nin as his head of security. Any other guard, they'd have been out 3 minutes ago, but this guard had noticed that something was just a teeny tiny bit off in the feel of the house, and had decided to investigate.

So far, the pair hadn't been seen. They were each suppressing their own chakra in order to avoid detection, but even so, trace amounts would still be noticeable to a highly-trained sensor type if he looked for it. And now that very type of person was doing a thorough, methodical sweep of the house, and on their run for the door, Kakashi had realized almost too late that the corner he'd ducked them into (in an effort to avoid the normal shift guard passing by) was connected by one very thin wall to the hallway the hunter was currently searching.

His panic must have shown in his eyes, because Rin had understood almost immediately why he was staring at the wall, and she'd done some fast thinking of her own.

She'd quickly formed several seals Kakashi recognized as belonging to medical jutsu, and before Kakashi could ask her what the hell she was thinking, using jutsu when they were trying to AVOID chakra detection, she'd planted one hand solidly in the center of his chest and the other on her own body, knocking him flat against the wall (silently because of his own reflexes) with her supporting herself against him.

The immediate constriction in his body felt like his skin was suddenly way too tight, his airway was blocked, his muscles were all locked into contractions. He realized as soon as he saw her expression change that she was feeling the same effects.

_She's suppressing both of our chakras completely, _he realized. Not enough to kill them, not if it was just for a handful of seconds, but complete enough that the sensor nin wouldn't be able to detect a hint of life just a few feet away from him through the lightweight wood. _That jutsu must work on itself too…I wonder how that happens. _

Just as he wondered why the jutsu itself wasn't detectable, the glow in her hands began to flicker as it choked out her own chakra. After a couple of flickers, they were in complete darkness again. He felt no change in his body for several seconds, and those seconds ticked into hours. He and Rin dared not move, dared not even twitch a muscle. They stayed frozen in the same position until they were both desperate for move, desperate to breathe, desperate to stretch and feel their chakra flow again.

Then Rin drew a breath, though very shallow, and the sense of suspended animation vanished. Kakashi realized he could feel a tiny bit of chakra stirring in him, and he took in as much air as he could while keeping his chakra signature suppressed on his own once again. He risked a glance with his Sharingan toward the wall in the direction of the hunter, and as soon as he saw that the man seemed to have resumed his methodical sweep of that hallway, Kakashi took a slightly deeper breath, grabbed Rin's wrist, and pulled her quickly and silently into a run behind him.

* * *

Once they crested the hill overlooking the outside the compound, Kakashi and Rin both collapsed onto all fours and panted to catch their breath. It felt damn good to be able to take in the full, normal amount of air again, but they didn't have long.

Kakashi glanced at Rin from the corner of his eye with a smirk twinkling in it. "Thanks," he breathed, and she acknowledged it with a nod.

His chakra circulation wasn't completely back to normal, and might not be for several more minutes or maybe even hours. He just hoped it was functioning enough for him to be able to run through the trees, because they'd have to start doing that soon. Rin was probably already repairing her own chakra flow.

It was a good thing the 4-man platoon had split in twos like this instead of him taking one of the other team members in with him. He'd questioned the wisdom of it at first, not wanting to drag Rin into the center of a dangerous situation, but as captain he'd wanted to break into the best possible pairs. Nobody could read him like Rin could and vice versa, and the other two were already used to each other as well. Also, despite being an increasingly capable kunoichi, she disliked leaving his side on missions ever since that one mission, and he was inclined to feel the same way because of a certain promise he'd made. So he'd agreed to take Rin in with him as his partner, deciding smooth teamwork was a better guarantee of making sure everyone came out alive than breaking into the less familiar pairs.

"That was fast thinking," he said very quietly between breaths.

She smiled and bobbed her head. "Thanks," she breathed in response.

"What was that?" Kakashi's breathing was finally slowing, and it seemed hers would soon but not quite yet. He raised himself so he was sitting on his knees.

"It was," pant, "it was a jutsu," pant, "for restraining unruly patients," she told him, and he could almost hear the laughter in her whisper. "It freezes and constricts the whole chakra system at once." Now her breathing was finally slowing, and she sat back on her knees to regain the rest of her composure. "It only works on ninja, not civilians, and it's supposed to be only for the ones who are really thrashing around because it's quite a shock to the system."

Kakashi's hint of a smirk grew into a grin, and he chuckled. "No kidding," he muttered just as the two other members of their makeshift team showed up from their surveillance positions. Kakashi stood, and Rin followed his lead.

"You guys ok?" one of the young men asked, and Rin and Kakashi both nodded.

"Got the papers?" the other asked.

Kakashi tapped one of his pockets where the papers were sealed into a scroll. "Mission accomplished," he said.

_The boss probably won't want to let his head of security leave on a hunt, _the teenage Copy Nin thought;_ he's there to provide protection first and probably do errands second. But the boss may not be around to give orders at the moment._

"Unfortunately, we may have a hunter-nin on our tail soon, so we'd best get moving. If we go now and run hard, we should be halfway back to Konoha before he figures out what we took and can pick up our trail."

Two pairs of eyes widened at him, one looking a bit nervous and the other looking put out. "Hunter-nin?" one of them asked flatly.

Kakashi grinned and shrugged. "Just not our lucky day I guess. We'll report in and let ANBU do the follow-up. Let's move."

The wind brushed gently over the hill overlooking the compound, which was suddenly empty of the four Konoha shinobi that had been standing there just a heartbeat ago.

* * *

What do you think? This just popped into my head today, and I decided I wanted to see the time when Rin became Kakashi's best friend between, you know, stuff happening. I think this would be a really adorable moment for us Kakashi fans to get to see, but a fleeting one.

I couldn't decide who to make the other two teammates, so I left it open for your imagination to decide.


End file.
